The invention relates in general to recovery assist, secure and traverse (RAST) systems used on helicopters and in particular to an apparatus for increasing the visibility of the messenger cable that is lowered from a helicopter.
The RAST system is a landing assist and secure system. It provides the means to assist landing and securing an airborne helicopter to the flight deck of a seagoing ship. The RAST system has components on both the ship and the helicopter. The helicopter RAST system controls an electrically-operated actuator and hoist, which unlatches and extends the RAST main probe and lowers a messenger cable from the main probe to the ship's flight deck. On the flight deck of the ship, the messenger cable is secured to a hauldown cable. The messenger cable, with the hauldown cable attached, is retrieved and reeled into the helicopter through the main probe. When the end of the hauldown cable reaches the main probe, the hauldown cable is secured to the main probe. The shipboard RAST winch then hauls the helicopter down to the flight deck of the ship under the control of the shipboard landing officer.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a helicopter and a ship. Helicopter 10 hovers above ship 14 and lowers messenger cable 16 to landing deck 15. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the end of the messenger cable 16 showing the connector 18 for the ship's hauldown cable. The connector 18 is lowered to the deck of ship 14 where the deck crew attaches the ship's hauldown cable to the connector 18. During night landings when the ship's deck is marginally lit, the deck crew may not be able to see the messenger cable 16 to capture it for hookup actions. Dangerous situations occur when the cable 16 becomes snarled with the ship's hardware or entangled with a crewman. Delay to recovery of the helicopter resulting from possible hookup difficulties, especially under worst-case or emergency conditions, also represents an adverse safety element.
The present invention provides improved visibility to the messenger cable 16 and connector 18 to facilitate helicopter landing operations during times of low visibility.
The invention will be better understood, and further objects, features, and advantages thereof will become more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.